400 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [i:rn ann. :;1 



In small brooks salmon were caught with spears with detachable 

 bone points (N 117). 



Trout were caught with a two-pronged fish-spear (260). In the 

 fall, while the people staid in their summer camps on the small tribu- 

 taries of Skeena River, salmon were also caught with spears with 

 detachable points (246, N 117). Poor people would wait for the sal- 

 mon to go up small brooks. Then they caught and clubbed them 

 (158). When the salmon were late in arriving, these people were in 

 great need. A trip of a prince and his friends, who go up the river every, 

 spring to catch trout, is described (260). It is also told that the fish- 

 ermen go up the river in their canoes as far as the depth of the water 

 permits (304). The salmon, after being secured by means of the spear 

 are clubbed, the dart is taken out, and the salmon are then thrust 

 back on the bank (304). While the fishermen were out in camp 

 obtaining salmon in this manner, they would make new darts and 

 spear-handles for fishing whenever required (30.5). 



Fish were also caught in traps. People traveling along the river 

 are described as camping near a shallow brook and making fish traps 

 of red-cedar wood, which were placed in the water (251). These 

 fish traps were also used with weirs, two traps being placed at the 

 ends of one weir (251). A weir with trap is also mentioned in N 208. 



On the seacoast, weirs were erected across narrow channels, in 

 which seals and fish were caught at low tide (306). 



During the early part of the salmon-run, on the upper part of the 

 river, the fishermen would fish with bag nets, which were attached 

 to long poles. They would stand on a platform (199), evidently in 

 the same way as is done by the Salish Indians on Fraser River. 

 According to tins passage, which is not quite clear, it might seem 

 that the fish were directed toward the sides of the river by means of 

 a weir or a net stretched across, which left an opening only at the sides. 



The olachen were very plentiful, for a canoe could be filled in half 

 a day (302). * The fisherman's wife and Ins mother-in-law, in another 

 case his wife and a female slave, are mentioned as accompanying 

 him in the canoe (301). The olachen taboos and the preparation of 

 the olachen wdl be found described on p. 450. 



Halibut are caught with hooks made of crooked branches of red or 

 yellow cedar, attached to fishing-lines made of red-cedar bark sixty 

 fathoms long. The hahbut hook is tied to the fishing-line with split 

 spruceroots. Devilfish is used as-bait. The fishing-lines are taken out 



' In 301 a rather full note tells about the olachen fishing. When the fish arrive, they swim very near the 

 surface, ati' 1 are caught with hnvj wuixlen rakes. These are made of red cedar, and the teeth of the rakes are 

 made of the knotty branches of rotten spruce. These are three finger-widths long. The man sits in the 

 bow of the canoe; the woman, in the stern, where she steers. They work day and night, going up and 

 down the riverwith the tide, for about eight days. Alter about eight days, the fish swim in deeper water, 

 and then they are caught in bag nets, which are attached to poles five fathoms long. At this time there 

 are generally one man and several women in the canoe; the wife steering, the others sitting in the middle 

 to help him in the handling of the bag net. 



